Mjeteconer Just perfect...

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Martin Bradley In 1952 both "High Noon" and "The Quiet Man" were nominated for Best Picture. It was also the year that the greatest of all musicals, "Singin' in the Rain" first appeared and yet the Academy didn't think it worthy of a Best Picture nomination, (though they did nominate "Ivanhoe"). So what did the Academy choose as the Best Picture of 1952? Why, that was the year the honor went to Cecil B. DeMille and "The Greatest Show on Earth", the biggest and arguably the best of all circus films, as well as one of the least deserving Best Picture winners of all time; not the worst perhaps but set it beside "High Noon" and "The Quiet Man" and it pales into insignificance.It's an epic that uses the real-life circus of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey as the basis for its spectacular and melodramatic plot and it crams a load of stars onto the screen for effect, (Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Gloria Grahame, Dorothy Lamour and Jimmy Stewart, hiding, not very convincingly, behind clown make-up), and when it's on the high-wire or the flying trapeze it's certainly exciting and without the constraints of the Bible hanging over him, it may be DeMille's best film. So is it the greatest show on earth? Where sawdust and tinsel is concerned it might be but not when you have "The Quiet Man" and "Singin' in the Rain" waiting in the wings.

utgard14 Cecil B. DeMille epic about the goings-on at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Charlton Heston's the manager of the circus, Betty Hutton's his girlfriend, and Cornel Wilde is the ladies' man trapeze artist that comes between them. Jimmy Stewart is terrific as Buttons, a clown with a dark secret. The rest of the cast includes Gloria Grahame, Dorothy Lamour, some surprise cameos, and hundreds of real-life Ringling Bros. employees. Most of the cast does a good job. Betty Hutton is a bit of a ham. Looks great in her outfits though. Stewart is the best, not surprisingly to me. The real circus backdrop and the actors actually doing some of their own stunts is very cool and adds to the film's authenticity. Beautiful Technicolor is always a plus. It's such a good-looking movie that sometimes I got lost in taking in all the attractive surroundings, so I had to go back so I could see what I missed in the story. Often cited as one of the worst Oscar winners for Best Picture. I do think there were more deserving films that year (High Noon and The Quiet Man, to name two), but it's still a top notch drama with action, humor, and heart done in the grand Old Hollywood fashion. The train wreck scene alone is worth giving it a look.

SnoopyStyle Brad Braden (Charlton Heston) is the general manager of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus which travels the country on their railroad train. His girlfriend Holly (Betty Hutton) expects to be in the lead trapeze spot. He is forced to hire trapeze star The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) to keep the circus going. That starts a trapeze competition and a love triangle. Buttons the Clown (James Stewart) has a secret and is hiding from the law. Harry runs crooked games in the midway concessions. Elephant trainer Klaus is obsessed with Angel who rejects him.It is a technical marvel with many of the circus performers filling out the background. The combination of Cecil B. DeMille and P. T. Barnum results in an extravaganza but the stories don't hold up. I can admire the grand facade but in the end, there is nothing there. None of the actors are doing good work and the characters are too thin. Jimmy Stewart is probably the most interesting but he's a supporting character who is in clown makeup most of the time. All too often, these stories and characters feel grafted onto the circus.

vincentlynch-moonoi A lot of people seem to have a problem with this film because it won 2 major Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1952. I think critic Leonard Maltin may have put it best when he said that "like most of DeMille's movies, this may not be art, but it's hugely enjoyable".You have to begin by remembering that the year was 1952, Yes, Milton Berle and Lucy and Martin & Lewis had arrived, but only 34% of the homes in America had television sets. So, for many communities it was still a big deal when the circus came to town, and a big deal when a movie like this came to the local movie theater.Second, I think this film is important. In fact, probably more important today than it was in 1952. What better source do we have for seeing what a circa 1950 big circus was actually like? None. And make no mistake, despite a plot and movie stars, what you see in this film is a lot of real circus acts. Yes, for most you get only glimpses, but this movie still preserves what the mid-1900s circus was like better than any reference book.And what about the plot or plots. Well, you have a love triangle -- Heston, Wilde, and Hutton. You have the sub plot of how the mighty can fall (literally in this case). And you have another sub plot about revenge. Such plots and sub plots are not uncommon in pictures...in fact, they are the most common themes. Here they just happen to take place at a circus.In terms of the actors, this kind of part was perfect for the wacky Betty Hutton. If Lou Grant had known her, he would have said she had spunk! This is probably the only film I really like Cornel Wilde in. I guess the one who comes out pretty bad here is Charlton Heston. Of course, his greatest successes, including Ben-Hur, were a few years off. Frankly, his performance here is rather wooden and he shows his limitations quite profoundly. It's interesting to see James Stewart just clowning around...literally...in perhaps his most unique role. Dorothy Lamour is rather typecast. This may be the only film where Gloria Grahame acted like a normal human being...and did it quite well. Interesting, also, to see the venerable Henry Wilcoxon, her as the FBI agent. And the cameos are fun, including Bob and Bing.This really was quite a Cecil B. DeMille production. But, of course, DeMille was very old school, and it showed. And DeMille had yet one more miracle up his sleeve for a few years hence -- "The Ten Commandments".TO enjoy this film, remember the era which it represented, which was over 60 years ago. From that perspective, it's pretty damn good.